Sepia

These are some of my favorite photos from my Dad's albums. They really look sepia in the originals although some of the scans look more black and white.

He enjoyed traveling around the area. He did some research in the desert.

The boy on the trike is my cousin Melvin, who will be ninety this year. Not sure who the little guy about to fall off the wagon is.

Before the "Keep Wildlife Wild" campaigns. I believe that is my granddad facing the camera, and the critters.

another of Dad's cars. Quite a fascination.

That is my Dad. (I inherited my fear of heights from my Mother.)

This may be my favorite picture. And I am not sure with his head buried under the hood if it is one my his friend Hall took of my Dad and one of his cars, or if my Dad took it of his friend Hal.

Cropped for the header.

Headbangers. We have fun each week with a new theme. Other members are linked in my sidebar.

Birds

My theme for my headbanger friends.

Some of my birds.

A disclosure. I am not getting out to take pictures lately--hardly at all. The pictures I post are collected from my files over several years. I drastically need a road trip.

Except for the geese, these pictures were taken in Arizona, and parks near Mesa and Chandler. The geese were in a lake in Oakland California.

Blue Heron

Cormorants cooling off

Cactus Wren--love this one, I call it "What you lookin' at?"

Are these cormorants, too? Not sure

Not sure about these guys either.

On my way to meet some friends.

Oh, there they are. I don't know what these guys are but they sure have long skinny legs.



Geese.

Birds have gone now.

Links to the blogs of  Mac, Tom, Lew, and Christine are in my sidebar. Follow them to go birdwatching today.

New blog.

I have created a new blog to share the trials and triumphs of living with Dementia with Lewy Bodies.

No posts yet, but a description of my purpose.

I will find some links to add to help anyone interested to understand this mystifying condition.

Adventures with Lewy

Snow or Winter

Aren't they synonymous? Well, no. In order to show some winter pictures that include snow I have had to go back to my files. We have had some great snow this winter, but it comes, goes, comes again, then goes and at the moment it is gone. A trip to the mountains would find us some, but we haven't been.

I had thought that the theme was winter or frost. Consequently I had this image ready to go, which certainly is illustrative.

Some snowshoeing pictures from past years definitely show snow and winter.

My header will come from this common sight in the rural Northwest. Irrigation lines resting till the season. These were taken in Eastern Oregon.

Check out the winter views from the other headbanger challengees. Their links are in my sidebar.

In the Kitchen

My own kitchen is not currently fit to be photographed--unless you want to see the disaster that it sometimes is. Let's just say we are not House Beautiful ready. We flit in, cook, heat, eat, and clean up (or sometimes don't) and are gone again.

My favorite kitchen is this one:

Cooking pizza at Cousin Camp

 

 

 

 

 

This past weekend, however, I did cook lunch for a group of about sixty in our church kitchen.

My header is the taco soup at a simmer.

 Here are some of the goodies that are served along with...

Beverages of choice

 

And such is to the day that there was about an inch of soup left in the pot when we went back to our studies.

 

The recipe:

Brown together:

2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey

1 large onion chopped

Add undrained canned vegetables:

2 14½ oz. cans diced tomatoes

1  14½ oz can Mexican style tomatoes

1 4 oz can chopped green chilies

1 15 oz pinto beans

1 15 oz can kidney beans

1 15 oz can black beans

1 15 oz can hominy

1 14½ oz can whole kernel corn

1½ can water

1 1¼ oz package taco seasoning mix

1 ½ oz package ranch dressing 

I also add a can of drained olives and for this group used jalapeño chilies.

Bring to a boil - reduce heat - cover and simmer 30-45 minutes or till lunch.

Serve with sour cream, chopped green onions, grated cheese, and tortilla chips.

This is supposed to be 16-20 servings. That depends on appetites.

Of course, for the large group at the retreat I doubled this recipe and also served a big pot of potato soup. 

Check out the kitchens of my colleagues in the weekly header challenge. Their links are in my sidebar.